Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-03-18
VICKSBURG'S GUNS.
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET OF THE
BATTERIES IN APRIL, 1868

A Crowded House Assembled to Witness
a Thrilling Playa Painful and Mys-
teriea. SiIrpce--A Surprised Audience
on the Bluff.
The evening of Thursday, April 16, 1863,
was mconless, starlit, placid, and balmy.
Soon after dark steamers and various other
boats dropped down from Millii1en's bend to
Lower Landing, place about four miles in a
direct line from Vicksburg, and from which,
in daylight most excellent view of the city
and the fortiiications could be obtained. On
a large steamer, the Won Phu, there was
lively party, among whom were Gen. and
Mrs Grant, Gen and Mrs. McClernand, and
many other officers and their ladies, who
occupied, as it were, proscenium box In the
front of the Vicksburg stage. Mrs. Grant, |
noticed, had improved very much, at least in
dress. since Filad seen her in Cairo, when she
came to that point with tine general. She
wore then dress of some plain stuff. with
heavy caifskin shoes, while pretty ltfle Nellie
was mainly remarkable for the possession of
a very brilliant pair OF nankeen pantaets.
1t was brilliant and crowded honse that
assembled to witness the. projected play.
Some thirty boats had gathered, each of
which was black with human beings Cham
pagne corks popped; there were waves of
laughter rolling and stuging from boat to
boat; there were gossip, love rcahing, songs
and chorpses, stories and general hllarity as
the vast audience waited for the rise OF the
curtain. The ss : was full of stars that looked
down solemnly-the only serious spectator of
the scene.
The lights twinl1led from thesweling bluffs
of Nickslurg until ahout l0'oclock, and then
gradually disappeared. Just then the song
and laughter Of the vast audience were sud-
,lealy hushed as there appeared in the OBJ
security of the river "a sbapeless mass of black
floating slowly down the stream. 1t disap-
peared, and then came another, and another,
and still others, long procession of bGlky
shadows, noiseless, mysterious, and drifting
as il without life or Voliton. They seemed as
il they were great masses of darkness which
had detached themselves from the bank of
night above and floated acrcsS the narrow
vista in our front to, and disappeared in, the
night below.
Ten of these shapes glided by, and then the
IltItsSftH NdS tiu. ~
as death fell on the audience The beating of
hearts could be heard here and there, and oe-
casionally long expiration that suggested a
sob. Every eve was turned in the direction
| where the pacific lights of Eicksburg had
lately glinmercd and disappeared. Nothing
could he seen save long, low bank of pitchy
midnight living between the foreground below
| and the stars above All watched with
strained vision this mass of darkness, for in
its silence and gloom we knew We're thunders
| and lightninCs and fierce volcanoes which at
any moment might ilhlmine and shake the
| earth with their eruptions.
| A PAINFUL SILENCE.
| The silence, the mystery, became painful
! There were some who hoped that the batteries
had been passed without detection. One
| ingenu ventured the opinion:
"The ConfederateS are using air guns, and
! the explosions are noiseless!'
Speculation began to expand into breezy
| discussion, when, at exactly 1l:l5 two
| fierce, sharp lines of flame, as exactly
defined in outline as spears of steel, flashed
| through the darkness from the right of the
Vicksburg batteries, and moment later the
| e,tire height and length of the bluffs were
| ahlaze with crimson fire. AT the same instant
| that the darkness was interrupted the silence
was shattered with the roar of guns that
rocked the earth like heavy thunders For a
full hour the lightnings played through the
darkness. and the air was rent with detona.
| tons, and then silence and the night settled
| again over the scene.
| In no case in history is there parallel Of
| this tremendous event There have been
others of equal grandeur, but none in which
| an nnumerahle audience assisted at the
| spectacle, and in which the unfolding of the
| tragedy occurred in such sublime environ.
ment of night, and with the galleries of the
heavens filed with starry spectators
have no reason to think that the people OF
Vicksburs enjoyed the display as did the I'M
mense audience gathered at the lower land
! ing Several times before the Federals had
| sent vessels by the Notifications. and in the
case of nore was there any reply to the fire OF
the batteries Having this in mind a large
element of the population turned out TO wit
ness the scattering of another Yankee hull
| by the invincible batteries. Woe was OF
them when, in place of a solitary craft flying
with fearful feet before the wrath of the Con
| federate guns, the black sides of eight guf
boats suddenly famed, and n broadside from
twenty monster cannon charged with grape
| and canister flooded tiie obscrvant bluffs
"PoliutoH in Chicago Times.